Effects of exercise training on health status in patients with chronic heart failure: HF-ACTION randomized controlled trial.

Flynn KE, Piña IL, Whellan DJ, Lin L, Blumenthal JA, Ellis SJ, Fine LJ, Howlett JG, Keteyian SJ, Kitzman DW, Kraus WE, Miller NH, Schulman KA, Spertus JA, O'Connor CM, Weinfurt KP

The objective of this study was to test the effects of exercise training on health status among patients with heart failure. 2331 medically stable outpatients with heart failure were randomized to usual care plus aerobic exercise training consisting of 36 supervised sessions followed by home-based training or usual care alone. At 3 months, usual care plus exercise training led to greater improvement in the KCCQ overall summary score compared with usual care alone. The additional 1.93-point increase in the exercise training group was statistically significant. After 3 months, there were no further significant changes in KCCQ score for either group resulting in a sustained, greater improvement overall for the exercise group. Results were similar on the KCCQ subscales, and no subgroup interactions were detected.

Exercise training conferred modest but statistically significant improvements in self-reported health status compared with usual care without training. Improvements occurred early and persisted over time.

JAMA. 2009, 301(14), 1451-9

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